Teacher discovers dead body of teenage student in high school bathroom

BEAVER — The dead body of a teenage girl was found in the bathroom of Beaver High School on Monday sometime after school had let out.

At approximately 4:45, a teacher at Beaver High School entered an upstairs bathroom inside the school where she found the body of a 17-year-old high school junior, Beaver County School Superintendent Ray Terry said.

A handgun was also found next to the girl’s body; however, authorities have not yet released whether the gun had any involvement in the girl’s death, Terry said. It is also unknown at this time whether or not this incident was a suicide or caused by some other means.

“Until there has been an official determined cause-of-death we can’t say for certain,” Terry said.

To help students who may be negatively affected by the incident, or may feel the need to speak to somebody, Terry said, the school district has formulated a crisis response team.

“The team is made up of licensed clinical therapists and high school counselors,” Terry said. “Because of the nature of our small community … we actually had a therapist go to Milford High School as well as the four counselors and therapists at Beaver High School.”

Students who may be wishing to reach out to some of these services are encouraged to speak to their high school counselors, Terry said. Adults and other Beaver County residents can call the Southwest Behavioral Health Center at anytime to seek out help as well.

“So we do have some resources that are available for (everyone),” Terry said. “As limited as they may be, they are still very good.”

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

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About the Author

Devan Chavez began working at St. George News soon after graduating from Southern Utah University in 2014 with a degree in Communication with an emphasis in Broadcast Journalism. Devan has traveled to multiple countries on humanitarian service and study abroad trips. He enjoys learning about new cultures and sharing ideas. He hopes to use his skills to spread awareness of issues and aid the less fortunate. In his free time He recently returned to SUU and is working towards his Master's in Professional Communication. Devan enjoys photography, videography, cycling around town, loud concerts and training in muay thai kickboxing.

sure wish SG Newsweiters would learn basic journalism. Stop using the term “dead body”. The correct term is “body”. By inference, it’s dead. Bodies of water can be described as dead. No one ever finds a live human body.

Likewise, new baby is simple baby, useless the individual has recent one, which probably is now an infant.

Probably because the language in which something is written about is how the public responds to the incident, unless they are directly related. Also it is likely that this Mr. P doesn’t have bible verses clogging his brain so he can actually identify improper word use in the area of journalism.

Now on the subject of this girls’ death. Poor thing, a tragedy has struck, oh the humanity. The weak are meek and the strong must eat. Doesn’t St. George have enough children overdosing on heroin in their own bathrooms? Instead, they pull an article from somewhere outside that makes somewhere else look bad. I’m so tired of this attempted image of perfection and everywhere else is dangerous. Enjoy your black hole.

P.S. Just to cover my tracks on the last bit, if this was written by a Beaver reporter then simply reposted to St. George News, we still need to focus on our own turf instead of using journalistic redirection, there’s plenty going on in southern utah to discuss.

Mr. Q, maybe you aren’t aware that St. George News reports on Iron, Garfield and Beaver counties via our own Cedar City News publication, and although only reports particular to those counties generally post on Cedar City News, all reports generated for either site post on our primary platform, St. George News. Our area of coverage broadly is Southern Utah, with St. George being our “epicenter” of sorts.
ST. GEORGE NEWS | STGnews.com
Joyce Kuzmanic
Editor in Chief

I think the timing is off on this too, the page went out for responders about an hour prior to the time reported. Why would there be a gun at the scene but it’s not clear if it had anything to do with causing the death? Is a gun something you would normally find in a high school restroom? Neverless, a sad story. Prayers to all involved.

Suicide is the most likely explanation. Social pressures can be overwhelming among adolescents. The availability of firearms makes it more likely to do fatal self harm, although hanging is also effective in countries like Japan.. We will see what the investigation finds.
Precursor behavior is sometimes easy to overlook, establishing good communication and being aware of warning signs is imperative.
Tragic…

You are all a bunch of heartless people. As I start reading the comments about my nieces death I thought that I would read some nice comforting comments from strangers but all I see is a bunch of inconsiderate internet bullies. People who live to bitch about everything. I just don’t get it…

That’s usually the only people that comment on here. It’s really quite disgusting. People think that because they are “disconnected” and anonymous that common decency is not required. I think it is especially bad here in Utah as so many of the negative responses are from people who have a chip on their shoulder because they feel that they don’t fit in here. It would be extremely nice if I could read the comments here on this site without always feeling so much hate, animosity, resentment, and lack of overall respect. If it was my paper I would block people who are constant violators of the before mentioned. It’s one thing to have a voice its another abuse the privilege of this site by constantly offending the rest of the readers.

Very sorry for your loss. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for your family. At work (I live in St G) I heard only kind words and sadness about this situation – and talk about how we need to try to help others. so sorry.

My deepest condolences. It breaks my heart to see things like this happen so often now. My oldest daughter is 12 . All this texting and Facebook availabilty to kids has got something to do with the bullying. When I was in school only the office had a computer. And it was a black and white screen. So when I bullied or got bullied it was only at recess…. technology is available now to everyone. Rich or poor. And these kids have so much free time now. To the parents, I can’t imagine what you are going through and prayers will be said.

My heart breaks for this family. Having been in the situation where it was my brother who passed away, it’s horrific. There are no words to describe the pain they are going through or will go through for the rest of their lives. Prayers of peace, comfort and healing in what will most likely be the hardest week of their lives. I know it was for us.

I work with students at a St George high school and I worry about my students all the time. Adolescence is a tough phase to go through, I wish there was more we could do to help them. My condolences to the family, friends,and faculty.